Ubik

Back in his office in New York, Runciter meets with a woman named Miss Wirt. Miss Wirt claims that telepaths have infiltrated the top-secret operations of her employer, and she needs Runciter to send in inertials immediately. Runciter secretly orders one of his own telepaths to read Miss Wirt to find out more about who she is and whom she represents. “Miss Wirt represents Stan Mick. She is his confidential assistant,” the telepath tells Runciter (40). She also says that Mick’s top-secret operation is on Luna—the moon—and involves some kind of near-light speed interstellar drive system. Realizing that this could be a big paycheck, Runciter quotes Miss Wirt an estimate of the cost of sending in 40 inertials, a substantial amount. Miss Wirt says that her employer assures her they will only need 11 inertials.

Runciter and Ashwood muse over Pat, the new inertial, and her ability to seemingly travel back in time. Joe, who is working on the special project to Luna, gathers the 11 inertials into Runciter’s office. They introduce Pat to the team and ask her to show them what she can do. She immediately changes the present, so that Runciter is “before a ship window on Fifth Avenue, a rare coin shop” (53).